I almost quit football to sell fish, then Chelsea wanted me and now I'm the most expensive defender in the world
Manchester City star Josko Gvardiol had one of the funniest moments of his teenage years.
The Croatian defender was growing tired of the lack of opportunities in Dinamo Zagreb's youth team.
The path to becoming a professional footballer became increasingly uncertain, and another career path tempted him.
Gvardiol's father is a fishmonger and the center grew up helping him in the market.
Less than six years ago, this 22-year-old was considering starting his life working at four in the morning selling fish in Zagreb.
He is now the most expensive defender in the history of football and a Premier League title winner.
Manchester City signed Gvardiol from RB Leipzig for £77m in the summer of 2023.
The add-ons are expected to take the deal to more than £80m, surpassing the record amount. Manchester United They paid for a defender when they signed Harry Maguire in 2019.
As far as life-changing decisions go, Gvardiol's was a pretty good one.
He told the Times In February 2023: “I was 16 or 17 and I was still on the bench for youth teams. I was frustrated and at one point I thought about quitting football.
“By the way, I hate fish. Imagine being 16 years old and having nothing but fish for dinner every day at home. I want to try something different.”
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“I don’t know what happened, but then I started playing and they finally saw something in me, my quality, and within a year I moved to Dinamo Zagreb’s second team.
“Within six months I was in the first team with (my current teammate at RB Leipzig) Dani Olmo.”
After that, things also got worse pretty quickly for Gvardiol.
After a season in Zagreb's first team, RB Leipzig rushed to sign him ahead of Leeds, who had just been promoted to the Premier League.
Gvardiol said: “I had two options, Leeds and Leipzig. Bielsa was the manager and my goal in my career is to play in the Premier League.
“But I knew I needed to take a few more steps before I could get there one day.”
Leeds were not the only Premier League side to try and fail to bring the Croatian to England before City.
Gvardiol rose to prominence at the 2022 World Cup, shining for Croatia as they reached the semi-finals.
Lionel Messi He was made to look ridiculous during Argentina's 3-0 win, but that didn't hurt his growing reputation.
Chelsea made a £70m bid as part of their January spending spree, and Gvardiol wanted the move.
He recalled: “My agent called me and saw that Chelsea are very interested. Of course one thinks about a serious offer from a club as big as Chelsea.
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“Leipzig told me they didn’t want to sell me, and in the end it was very difficult for me to make that decision, but we didn’t reach an agreement.”
At this point, it seems that avoiding Chelsea was as fortunate as choosing football over fishmongers.
Gvardiol immediately established himself as a regular starter under Pep Guardiola during the 2023/24 season, often deputising at full-back, as City won the Premier League title.
